San Ysidro High makes connections

Principal’s approach is part of school’s steady breakthrough

San Ysidro High School has had a lot of successes lately -- national breakout school, increased API scores, etc. Principal Hector Espinoza, center, is out in front of the school greeting each and every student as they come through the gates in the morning. He literally knows almost all of his 2,500-student body. At left is Assistant Principal Ricardo deo Rio. They check to make sure students are wearing the correct attire.

San Ysidro High School has had a lot of successes lately -- national breakout school, increased API scores, etc. Principal Hector Espinoza, center, is out in front of the school greeting each and every student as they come through the gates in the morning. He literally knows almost all of his 2,500-student body. At left is Assistant Principal Ricardo deo Rio. They check to make sure students are wearing the correct attire.

ASB students at San Ysidro High School make the morning announcements at the start of the school day. From left are Astrid Torres, 18, Desiree Pimental, 17 and Kristine Huynh, 17. The school has had a lot of successes lately -- national breakout school, increased API scores, etc. Principal Hector Espinoza is out in front of the school greeting each and every student as they come through the gates in the morning. He literally knows almost all of his 2,500-student body.

ASB students at San Ysidro High School make the morning announcements at the start of the school day. From left are Astrid Torres, 18, Desiree Pimental, 17 and Kristine Huynh, 17. The school has had a lot of successes lately -- national breakout school, increased API scores, etc. Principal Hector Espinoza is out in front of the school greeting each and every student as they come through the gates in the morning. He literally knows almost all of his 2,500-student body.

Students arrive for school courtesy of a long stream of busses to San Ysidro High School. The school has had a lot of successes lately -- national breakout school, increased API scores, etc. Principal Hector Espinoza is out in front of the school greeting each and every student as they come through the gates in the morning. He literally knows almost all of his 2,500-student body.

Students arrive for school courtesy of a long stream of busses to San Ysidro High School. The school has had a lot of successes lately -- national breakout school, increased API scores, etc. Principal Hector Espinoza is out in front of the school greeting each and every student as they come through the gates in the morning. He literally knows almost all of his 2,500-student body.

SAN YSIDRO  “Good morning, mija!”

“Good morning, mijo. Hey! Why aren’t you wearing your uniform? You had three weeks to do laundry.”

Dressed against the cold morning in full-length overcoat and purple scarf, Principal Hector Espinoza stood in front of San Ysidro High School greeting his students as they passed through the main gates. It was the first day back after winter break, and Espinoza was firing on all cylinders like a politician campaigning for votes.

Even more astonishing than Espinoza’s boundless energy is his encyclopedic knowledge of not only his students’ names, but their lives, as well: what sports they play, who their parents are, what club activities and special class projects they are into.

San Ysidro High has 2,500 students. That’s a lot of biographies to keep track of.

“There is a Spanish word, ‘entrometido,’ that﻿ they call me. I am a busy body,” Espinoza admitted. “I’ve been teased about that.

“I know at the very least 80 percent of the students by first name or by boyfriend/girlfriend or sport. I know about them. I know who they are.”

Clearly, being an “entrometido” works. A whole lotta good has been going on at San Ysidro High in recent months, not least of which is recognition as a “Breakthrough School” — one of only 10 in the nation this year — by the MetLife Foundation-National Association of Secondary School Principals.

The award recognizes middle level and high schools that are high achieving or dramatically improving student achievement and serve large numbers of students living in poverty. Espinoza and a delegation from the school will attend the NASSP’s Ignite 2013 Conference in Maryland in late February to receive the honor.

San Ysidro High was also recently the recipient of a $10,000 Innovation in Education award from Classroom of the Future Foundation. The nonprofit organization advances public education throughout San Diego County by inspiring business, community, and educational leaders to support, create and adopt innovative learning practices with enhanced instructional technologies that can measurably improve academic achievement.

And San Ysidro’s ROTC was the only high school program in the state selected to represent California next December for the annual Pearl Harbor parade in Hawaii.

Accolades on a national and countywide scale aside, San Ysidro High has a lot to be proud of every day. It begins with some simple tenets Espinoza instituted after becoming the first — and so far, only — principal of the school that opened its doors in 2002.

(Of the 23 original teachers, 14 are still there. Today, there are 129 teachers.)

San Ysidro High is the only public high school in the state where students wear uniforms, although jeans were allowed to creep in a few years ago as a privilege to seniors. The day starts at a civilized 9:10 a.m., enabling students to come to class well rested. And behavior problems are simply not tolerated.

The sprawling campus, overlooking the Pacific Ocean to the west and Mexico to the south, looks almost as sleek and graffiti free as it did when it first opened. On their very first day of high school, freshmen are directed to the gym for a pep talk delivered by Espinoza, the only adult present. They graduate the same way, retracing their steps from the football field back through the gym, giving a good luck pat along the way to the statue of their mascot, the cougar, in the middle of campus.